Diverging Performance Across Plant Sizes

Gardner’s precision machining index showed that business activity contracted slightly during the month of April. More interesting, though, is that facilities with more than 50 employees have grown every month this year. However, facilities with fewer than 50 employees have continued to contract. And, those facilities with fewer than 19 employees continue to contract at the same rate as they did in the second half of 2012. Primarily, it is small job shops that have pulled the index back below 50.0 in April. Read more here.